Portugal Colonial - Italy's Brignone unsure of Milan-Cortina 'dream'

Brignone will be 35 by the time the Milan-Cortina D'Ampezzo Games roll around and the three-time Olympic medal winner said she will take her time deciding on her participation.

She was speaking to reporters at Milan's Malpensa airport alongside fellow medal winners Arianna Fontana, Francesca Lollobrigida and Amos Mosaner after arriving from China with the Olympic flag and the Milan-Cortina delegation.

"It would be a dream to take part in Milan-Cortina as it would for Arianna (Fontana). I haven't yet decided, I won't decide today or tomorrow or in the next year," Brignone said.

"If I'm still competitive I'll be there and that would be a dream because I missed Turin... But I can't decide now."

Brignone is one of the stars of Italian skiing, along with Dominik Paris and Sofia Goggia, the only woman from her country to have ever won the overall World Cup crystal globe, in 2020.

She had been quoted by Italian media as saying the sprawling nature of the 2026 Winter Olympics, which will take place in a host of different towns spread over hundreds of kilometres, would impact the atmosphere of the event.

She was even quoted as saying that she had "lost the desire" to take part, and that as the men skiers would be at Bormio and the women at Cortina the alpine skiing would be "like a World Cup event".

"All I said was that in all of the Olympics I took part in there were lots of sports in the same village, in the same place," she said.

Amos Mosaner's mixed doubles curling triumph with Stefania Constantini was one of the stories of the Olympics, a first ever gold in the sport for a country with just 333 registered players.

The 26-year-old admitted that he and Constantini were not aiming for victory when they arrived in China but hoped that their exploits would drive an increase in player numbers.

"Our aim when we got there was to get to the play offs, we didn't think we would win the gold. But we knew that once we got into the play-offs we could have a go," Mosaner told AFP.

"Once we got through the semi-finals and knew that we had either gold or silver was a magnificent feeling. We went at the final head-on as we didn't have anything to lose.

"People will start to play the sport, it won't be easy for Milan-Cortina in 2026, but we're hoping to grow the number of players, which is very important for the future."

E.Borba--PC